County Set To Revamp Planning 3 Boards Oppose Move To Merge Land-use Duties

November 13, 1985|By Rick Tonyan of The Sentinel Staff

DELAND — Members of three of Volusia County's four zoning commissions are opposed to the idea, but county council members predict they will combine the commissions and the planning board into one land-use regulating group.

Opponents of combining the planners' duties with those of the zoners say they fear their campaign for a separate planning board may be doomed when the council finishes its proposals for the new group.

In September the council voted to form the group, called the Planning and Land Development Regulation Commission, which most members said they want to take over both planning and zoning duties.

An ordinance that would form the group then went before the four zoning commissions for review. The West Volusia, Halifax and Southeast Volusia commissions all recommended the council keep a separate planning board. Members of the North Peninsula Zoning Commission recommended combining planning and zoning duties but advocated the membership of the new group be increased from the proposed nine to 21.

Council members on Thursday will review those recommendations and formally appoint the new commission. Most members say that combined planning-zoning boards work in practically all other Florida counties.

''I think it's worth trying,'' Council Chairman Jack Ascherl said. ''We just think it has a great potential.''

Ascherl and most of his colleagues say that a combination planning and zoning board will be able to keep the county's overall land-use goals in mind while working on individual zoning cases.

The four commissions make recommendations on individual zoning cases while the planning board concentrates on designating areas for future land uses.

Critics of the combined board say the new group will become overburdened and forced to rely too heavily upon recommendations from hired county staff members.

Council member Roy Schleicher, who voted in September to keep a separate planning board, said his opposition has been diluted over the past two months. He said the number of applicants volunteering to serve on the new board has convinced him that people will be willing to take the time to both plan for land use and to hear zoning cases.

''I still have concerns about nine people being able to do it,'' he said. ''But I'm not as opposed to it as I once was. I won't fight it.''

The new group would meet twice a month, once to hear zoning cases and a second time to work on planning duties. All of its recommendations would go to the council for final decisions.

A statewide growth management law approved by the Legislature earlier this year forces the county to scrap the four zoning commissions and form one group to hear zoning cases. But the law would permit a separate planning board.